


i alight like a whisper

by Kangoo



Series: but first they must catch you [8]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Identity Reveal, Implied Relationships, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kangoo/pseuds/Kangoo
Summary: The Renegade points his gun at Occam, right between their eyes, and says,"Show me your Ghost."Or: a reveal, and an unfortunate realization
Relationships: The Drifter/Guardian/Shin Malphur (Destiny)
Series: but first they must catch you [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1458760
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	i alight like a whisper

**Author's Note:**

> title from severed by the decemberist

The Renegade points his gun at Occam, right between their eyes, and stops.

Occam watches him warily, follows every movement with their eyes like some sort of prey animal — the pensive tilt of his head, the slightest shrug of his shoulders as he shifts his grip on his gun. Panic ebbs and flows at each minute gesture, an almost physical pain that drowns out their other wounds. They feel naked like this, laying on the ground with only their makeup and the blood dripping down their face to protect them from the Renegade's heavy stare. The broken shards of the visor from their discarded helmet dig into their palm. They grip one between their fingers, mindless of the edge that threatens to cut their flesh. It's not much of a weapon, but right now even a rock would do.

"Show me your Ghost."

The voice is as featureless as the Guardian, twisted beyond recognition by his helmet. Whatever the desired effect was — intimidation or anonymity — it's a success. Still Occam recoils at the order, baring their teeth in a snarl.

Better a bullet through their skull than through their Ghost. It’s their last hope.

"If you have even the slightest hope to convince me not to shoot you," Renegade growls, "It's that. _Show me_.

They do. Against their better judgment they reach out a hand — slowly, before it's shot off by the trigger-happy Guardian hunter. A flick of their wrist summons Vitale. It hovers over their palm, spinning warily, caught between the threat and its desire to heal its Guardian.

Renegade's hand snatches it out of the air before it can make up its mind. Occam makes an outraged sound in the back of their throat, hand reaching for their Ghost before they can think better of it. But Renegade only turns it around in his grasp like it's a curious trinket, poking and prodding at the mismatched pieces of metal making up the reinforced shell. It only takes half a minute but it feels like an hour, helpless to do anything but watch as he plays with their life.

"No Darkness,” He muses. “You’re lucky you’re a poor Dredgen."

He tosses it back to Occam. It stops an inch from their skin even as they make an aborted, useless attempt to catch it. They vanish it again before the Renegade changes his mind.

All the fight seems to drain out of the Renegade then. A sigh escapes the man, so distorted by his vocoder it's barely more than a rush of static. The gun disappears, not that Occam is enough of a fool to believe it's more than a blink away from being back in his hand, and he drops to a crouch to be at eye-level with them.

And then he reaches for his neck, flicks the hood back, and takes his helmet off.

Occam— stares.

The face that stares back is familiar, painfully so, tired eyes strained on their face as if to echo the disbelief ringing in their mind.

They don’t know what to say, what to do — fuck, what’s the correct response to this kind of situation? Hey, your regular hookup and the guy you’re maybe sort of falling in love with against your will is holding a gun to your head. How do you feel about it?

Pretty bad, as it turns out, so they settle for a whispered “Mother _fucker.”_

Shin Malphur sits back on his heels and rests his chin on his hand, sharp eyes set on Occam. He’s merciful enough to stay silent, though his lips twist in a rueful, almost amused smile. They look away from it, pick themself up and fold their legs under them. They’re careful of sudden movements, but Shin barely reacts, or knows them too well to let them see him react.

The way he moves is familiar now. As if Occam has just opened their eyes to a whole new perspective or, perhaps, as if something shifted in the man, from Renegade to Shin. All this time and they didn’t know — but they remember the way he keeps to the shadows when he walks through the Tower, like a man used to going unseen. They remember crossing his path in the Annex, a lingering touch on Drifter’s arm or a meaningful glance—

All this time, and they never suspected a thing.

There’s a faint line of blood on their palm from holding the shard of glass so tightly. They look at it rather than into Shin’s eyes when they ask, “Did Drifter know?”

Shin barks out a bitter laugh. “Of course he did.”

The confirmation awakens in them a petty sense of betrayal, like — cutting yourself on a kitchen knife. Handling something you know to be dangerous and still being surprised when it makes you bleed.

This whole thing should feel better. Or be easier to come to terms with, at least. After all that’s the greatest threat to their life dealt with, just like that. The Renegade won’t be on their heels anymore, and it’s not like they expected an apology for the months of fear before that. Light knows they deserved it.

(They deserved the bullets, too, but they won’t ask for it.)

What if they fell in love with liars? They’ve been lying back right from the start. Hell, Occam did worse things than the both of them put together. They should be relieved Shin got attached enough not to shoot them. They should be relieved Drifter didn’t sell them out to him the second they became a Dredgen.

Occam mostly feels tired.

**Author's Note:**

> come haunt me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/absolyon) or [tumblr](https://youngster-monster.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
